NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, now 10 years in office, has ignored major Staten Island issues

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Recent polls show that this city holds its mayor in low esteem. Nonetheless, from an overriding city perspective, the mayor deserves a higher mark. However, when viewed through a Staten Island prism, Mr. Bloomberg just about gets a passing grade.

Citywide, the mayor has accomplished some formidable things. He inherited a city with a low crime rate and one wracked by a monstrous terrorist act. Throughout his almost 10 years in office he has maintained that low crime rate and kept the city free from terrorism.

Despite the economic wreckage caused by the Sept 11th disaster and the 2008 Wall Street collapse the city’s economy has remained somewhat resilient under the mayor’s stewardship.

Successful in securing control of the education system the mayor has presided over an up tick in student performance. Despite some missteps (Cathie Black as the city’s schools chancellor), the system remains more open to positive change. The abolishment of teacher rubber rooms is a case in point.

Moreover, the highest levels of the mayor’s administration remain free from scandal. This is evidently no small feat in an age when our governors, state legislators and City Council were rife with unethical and criminal behavior.

Finally, his recent bold attempt to reform an unsustainable pension system exhibits rare political courage.

Conversely, the mayor has failed on a variety of counts. First, his governing style is hands off and delegation prone. Never will he personally get involved in the day to day administration of this city and provide direct oversight of his senior operators. His rule over the vast city bureaucracy is limited to appointing commissioners who get a free hand in controlling their agencies.

The result has been a slug-like pace to administrative action and a network of self-righteous “experts” who have given us things like unwanted bike lanes and snow-removal paralysis.

The mayor’s rather elitist view causes a disconnect with his constituents whom he sometimes treats as manipulative dimwits.

His personality is such that he comes across as having no appreciation for the mindset and lifestyle of the middle class and poor. His pompous declaration that only he can save the city from economic chaos, coupled with his scheming abolition of the popular term limits law, was the height of political snobbery.

Finally, despite his recent austere budget proposal, the mayor’s early reliance on real estate tax increases and his inability to tame the government spending beast (spending rose 57 percent during his tenure) make him no Andrew Cuomo or Chris Christie.

Although he let his bureaucrats run amok, raised taxes and fees, and treated us like simpletons the mayor did avoid scandal, controlled crime, stopped terrorists, maintained the economy and boosted education. From a citywide standpoint it’s a “B” for mayoral performance.

After analyzing the mayor’s actions regarding Staten Island, his grade takes a shellacking. While frequently visiting and devoting some resources to our needs, he has failed to address the three main Staten Island issues — transportation, health care and local control.

When Bloomberg took office, Island traffic was snarled and we had the longest commute in the nation. Nothing has changed. He empanelled a “transportation task force” whose achievements were marginal and did not involve any large-scale traffic alleviation projects.

Meanwhile, the other boroughs (but not our Island) are connected by rail.

This stunning failure to treat Islanders fairly was wholly ignored by Bloomberg. We deserved one sizable initiative to alleviate internal traffic and another to join us by rail to the city subway system via New Jersey or the Verrazano Bridge. We’ve been left to commute like cattle and drive like snails.

Similarly, the other four boroughs have at least one city-owned hospital which pays for indigent health care. Our private hospitals, supported by our donations, must subsidize indigent care without city assistance. To right this outrageous wrong, Michael Bloomberg has turned a virtual deaf ear.

Also, we have been treated as a remote and inaccessible city outpost. As the mayor sees it, we are too far for the city to come to us but not far enough for us to go to the city.

Bloomberg has ignored repeated requests to site even one city agency here. His people argue that such a move is inconvenient for citizens compelled to travel to Staten Island. Meanwhile, the mayor has no problem requiring Islanders to travel to other boroughs to do business with city agencies.

The mayor’s failure to incorporate us into the city administration, citing insufficient transportation, without providing a transportation initiative, is a major rebuke.

If the city was not administratively coming to Staten Island, the mayor was asked to support a “local control” proposal whereby Island administrators would acquire discretionary authority over, at least, mundane matters like filling potholes or moving a fire hydrant.

The mayor’s Charter Revision Commission was seen as the vehicle for implementing such a plan. The mayor disregarded this request, insuring all decisions involving governmental administration on Staten Island are made in other boroughs.

The mayor talked a good Staten Island game but never championed one major effort to accommodate our foremost needs. While we were overlooked on big matters the mayor made some positive changes but his overall performance regarding our Island barely avoids failure. Call his grade from Staten Islanders a "D."